


The Monstrumologist's Wife

by willhenreeeee



Category: The Monstrumologist Series - Rick Yancey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-06
Updated: 2014-07-06
Packaged: 2018-02-07 18:30:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1909299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/willhenreeeee/pseuds/willhenreeeee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a rare beast is brought to Harrington Lane, the Warthrops and their assistant Will Henry believe it will be a normal cut-and-paste job. However, after the mounted beast is stolen from the society and mysteriously reappears in a French museum, it gives rise to a whole slew of problems. These include (but are not limited to) people getting murdered horribly, bad blood between Pellinore and Will, Monstrumological shenanigans, and the emergence of an old enemy they thought they had left behind forever.<br/>So basically a story from an AU where Muriel sucked it up and married Pellinore in spite of his love affair with his work.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Monstrumologist's Wife

Muriel was happily laying in bed, reading an old Dickens novel that came out before she was even born. She was pleasantly surprised that they owned a copy; as most of the books in Pellinore’s study were non-fiction tomes, mainly about Monstrumology. She had already read the ones about general biology. However, she avoided the others. She wasn’t sure if it was out of contempt for the practice, so much as that whenever she tried to read one, the little voice in her head changed to Pellinore’s droning monotone. It was nothing personal; she just liked animated narration. She had gotten so immersed in the fictional story, she had stayed up rather late to read it. The boys were also awake, sitting in the study and wrapping up the latest case. It had been a short one, but it was grueling enough to felt like it had taken 1,000 years to complete, leaving them with bags under their eyes and a strong distrust towards the Belgians. So of course, when a knock sounded on the door, she nearly threw the book across the room. It was nearly 2am in January, what were these men trying to pull? She expected to hear Pellinore stomp over to the door and yell at their caller to go away; since though he devoted himself to his work he rarely took a case within a rather short time of having just completed another. He was a stubborn man, but even he knew his limits. 

When she didn’t hear any footsteps or shouts, Muriel decided to deliver the message herself. Much more politely than her husband, at least. She slipped on her dressing gown (it seemed impolite to answer the door in nightwear, but then again if the person was expecting someone to answer fully dressed at this hour they would have been out of their damn mind), and crept downstairs. She took a moment to peek into the study. To her surprise, Pellinore was out cold, his head down on his desk. He was even snoring! Muriel practically jumped for joy. Will Henry was asleep as well, sprawled out on the floor with a book over his face. She smiled and was tempted to carry him to bed, but pressing matters (and the ridiculous thought of hefting a boy of sixteen up to his room) made her change her mind. She fast-walked over to the door and opened it up. There was not one person, but a pair of men. Their cargo was in a wagon; something huge with a tarp thrown over it.   
“Oh… this is 425 Harrington Lane, correct?” one asked.  
“Yes sir, what do you need?”  
The man cleared his throat. “We assumed Dr. Warthrop was a man…”  
“Oh goodness! He is, I’m his wife. And I see that you have important matters, but we just wrapped up an expedition and would appreciate it if you-”  
“Could you go fetch him?”  
Muriel was a bit taken aback. It was as if he hadn’t heard a word she said.  
“Sir,” she said, trying her best not to let a sour edge form in her tone, “I would very much appreciate it if you took your leave, since we just finished another job and are very tired.”  
“But Dr. Warthrop is-”  
“DOCTOR WARTHROP IS SLEEPING!”  
“Muriel?”  
Muriel whipped around. Pellinore was sticking his head out of the study. Apparently the commotion had woken him up. He still seemed absolutely exhausted, but his eyes flashed when he saw the man at the door.  
“What the devil are you doing?”  
“I was just telling these gentlemen to leave, dear.”  
Pellinore was over there in three strides.  
“What do you have?”  
“Something we assumed would interest you. You see, a man we met in Paris-”  
Muriel looked up at her husband, who seemed to be eyeing the cargo in shock. She didn’t blame him- it looked like they had a dead horse in there.  
“Nevermind that,” he said quickly, “you can tell me inside.”  
“Pellinore!”  
He turned around, ignoring her. “Will Henry! Will Henreeeee!”  
There was a groan from down the hall, and Will walked out of the library, looking just as disheveled as his master.  
“Yes, sir?”  
“Make some tea, we have company.”  
This woke Will up. He eyed the doctor in shock. “Company?”  
“Is there an echo in here? Yes, we have company! Now make some tea, snap to!”  
“Yes sir…”  
“Come in gentlemen, we can discuss this in the parlor.”  
The men followed him, leaving Muriel and Will still out in the hallway, both frozen in place and absolutely baffled.  
“What the hell?! It’s been two days since we got back from the Congo, what is he doing?!”  
“Don’t look at me, I was trying to get rid of them!”  
Will ran a hand down his face. “Ah, Christ. Might as well do what he said before he kills me. Lord knows his temper has been whittled down to nothing over the past month.”  
He went into the kitchen. Muriel decided to go into the parlor, just out of curiosity. Monstrumology was a dangerous and dirty thing, but she had to admit that it could be fairly interesting at times. Pellinore was leaning against the fireplace, a scene she was used to. She would have rather sat down, but didn’t want to be that close to the strangers, so she just stood at the other side of the mantle.  
“Well, what do you have?” Pellinore persisted.  
“We’re not quite sure, doctor,” said the younger man. He was rather baby faced; probably not much older than Will. The man next to him (who was probably his father) cleared his throat.  
“It looks like a wolf.”  
“A wolf?”  
“Yes, though it reminds me more of a hyena.”  
“I see…” Pellinore said thoughtfully. Muriel could practically see all the ideas flitting through his head.   
“We obtained it in France,” he continued. “My older son, John, works at a restaurant there. It’s rather nice. I was visiting him when this man came in there, a crazy old buffoon. He told my son and his superiors that he had some stewing meat to sell them. We went out back to see the cargo, and not only was it a beast like we’ve never seen before, but it was fully intact! And alive!”  
Pellinore perked up at this. “Alive? What sounds did it make?”  
“I don’t know…”  
“I went on a trip to Africa with my mother a few years ago,” said the son, “the sound it made remind me of a zebra.”  
Muriel raised an eyebrow. “That’s strange. What do you mean, ‘like a zebra’?”  
“It means what it means, ma’am. Though it wasn’t entirely like a zebra. It sounded like… like…”  
He started making a noise that was something between a bray and a bark.  
“No, no, Daniel,” his father corrected, “it was more like this!”  
He made a very similar noise.   
Soon enough, they were both making noises of various types. Muriel and Pellinore looked at each other, mentally coming to the conclusion that they should cart the pair over to the insane asylum. Will entered at that moment, a tray of tea in hand and a look of bemusement on his face.  
“Ah, Will Henry!” Pellinore said over the sounds of the men. “Would you two still like some tea?”  
The father and son snapped to attention, not even remotely embarrassed by the scene they made.   
“Oh yes, please.”  
Will set the tray down in front of them, quickly moving over to Muriel’s side.  
“What the hell is going on?” he whispered.  
“I’m not quite sure, but apparently their cargo sounds like the unholy offspring of a zebra and a hyena.”  
Will laughed.  
“Anyway,” the father continued, “the monster -if you will- was very close to breaking out of its cage. The man assured us, however, that it was completely safe. We asked him why the devil he would bring a mysterious beast to a public place without even killing it first, and he said ‘I wanted it to be as fresh as possible!’. Like I said, he was mad. We decided to keep it for the night, though, until we could either get rid of it or obtain something to properly kill it with.”  
“Surely you didn’t try knives,” the doctor said dryly.  
“Oh, we did try knives,” said the son, “or at least one of the cooks did. It ripped his arm right out of his socket! The poor fool.”  
Pellinore rolled his eyes.  
“Anyway, the next morning when we opened the restaurant again, it was gone! Left quite the mess behind it too. It even stole a whole hog’s worth of bacon from the store room!”  
Will held back a laugh.   
“I think I would have heard about a giant, man-eating beast terrorizing the streets of Paris.”  
“Don’t worry sir, it didn’t get quite that far, thanks to a very heroic man!”  
“Who was it?”  
“I don’t know, he never gave us his name! But he claimed he was a hunter of such fauna. He found it in an alleyway, tearing apart some poor young woman. Killed it with a single shot through the back of its thick head!”  
“Very brave of him,” Muriel said.  
“Why yes, he’s the bravest man I’ve ever met! He’s the one who referred us to you. He said he’d drop it off himself, but you and him aren’t on good terms.”  
“Must have been a colleague of mine,” Pellinore noted.  
“Yes. Now, how much are you asking for it?”  
“...Pardon?”  
“For the beast! The man said not to give it to you unless we could get a good price for it.”  
Pellinore practically growled and slammed his fist on the mantle. “I’ll bet it was Walker! That bastard is always out to get me!”  
“As if Walker would have the courage to approach a beast such as the one they described,” said Muriel.  
The doctor practically grinned at his wife. “Well, I suppose he took the shot from quite a distance.”  
“Who carries a around gun with them in a city, anyway?” said Will.  
“Imbeciles like Walker, that’s who!” the doctor said. “Now,” he clapped his hands together, “what price do you have in mind?”  
“1,000,000, if you could manage.”  
“...Will Henry, please escort these gentlemen to the door.”  
“Yes, sir.”  
“No wait! Alright then… 900, 000?”  
“Were you dropped on your head as a child, my boy!?”  
“How dare you suggest I would do such a thing to my son!”  
Muriel sighed. This was going to take a while. 

After haggling for a price (which took a good half hour) and heaving it down the basement steps (which took a considerable amount of effort), Dr. Warthrop finally got to pull away the bindings on his specimen. To Muriel’s surprise, he audibly gasped, while Will Henry stared at it in wide-eyed shock. But honestly, she couldn’t blame them. On the table before her rested the largest canine she had ever seen. It was almost the size of a cow, she was surprised it could even fit. It was wolf-like, with thick fur that seemed pitch black, but shone with more of a rust color under the light of the lamp. It had a long, strong neck, small ears, and a stout muzzle. The creature's paws were amazingly big, with curved claws that reminded her of daggers. At the right angle, they even looked like hooves, strangely enough. But the most unusual thing about the creature (that Muriel found almost comical) was its tail, which looked like a panther's.  
Pellinore's face was full of excitement now, his cheeks flushed and eyes back-lit with that passionate fire. Muriel couldn’t help but feel the same way, her heart pounding her her chest.  
"Lupus bestiæ?!" he cried.  
"Wh..." Will couldn't help but laugh out the exhilaration he felt. "Sir, what is this?!"  
"This, is the notorious Beast of Gevaudan!" said Pellinore as he stroked its flank.  
"Gevaudan?" asked Muriel.   
The doctor nodded, and Will handed him a few tools.  
"Yes, haven't you heard of it? In the 1760s, these creatures first came to France, and terrorized the townspeople of Gevaudan. It has become almost a legend, it was so widely feared." He clucked his tongue in disapproval. "Oh, the tales that were spread about it through blind fear! Fear is the thief of reason... but I digress. Many believed they were werewolves, you see, even though those are far from existing. These, however, are terribly real."  
"Did the townspeople kill them all?" asked Will.   
The doctor shook his head. "One was reportedly killed, mounted too. Rather badly, might I add. But, reports of them actually didn’t die down until the late 1840s. Nobody is quite sure what happened to them, though this specimen indicates that there is still a small breeding population."  
“I wonder how that old man got his hands on this…” Muriel pondered aloud.  
“He probably bought it from some sort of skilled trapper,” said Pellinore. “Lord knows you would have to be very talented to capture a specimen of Lupus bestiæ. It’s starting to make me think the man who killed it wasn’t Walker. That arsewipe would have just taken credit for the whole capture himself!”  
Muriel watched as Will and Warthrop took the beast apart, zoning out at times when Pellinore listed particularly boring tidbits. However, she did have something gnawing at the back of her mind: if Walker didn’t slay the beast, who did?

When the men finished up, it was morning. The excitement had worn off, leaving everyone bone tried.   
“I think all of us should get some sleep,” Muriel said, running her hand over Pellinore’s arm to punctuate her suggestion (and possibly encourage him to agree).  
“Hmm… I suppose that would be the best idea. I would like to have this mounted and on its way to the society by next week, though…”  
“You’re Pellinore Warthrop, you’ll have that done within no time!” Muriel grinned. Ego stroking was also a very good way to get Pellinore to go along with her suggestions.  
The Monstrumologist frowned thoughtfully. “Well, I suppose a few hour’s sleep wouldn’t hurt…”  
He ended up sleeping the whole day.


End file.
